Sulaymaniah, Iraq is the cultural capital of Kurdistan. It also suffers from traffic congestion and air pollution. A 25 mile light rail was proposed to address the problem. Crane Associates was asked to serve as lead economist to determine the market feasibility for this $22millionUSD public transportation project. We completed demand analysis for public transportation and 20-year forecast of ridership on light rail throughout the city, (pop.900,000). The work included ridership and revenue projections, analysis of employment and residential units by socio-economic factors, traffic counts, and maps the routes most likely to receive the highest ridership. The work was part of a larger climate change mitigation program.
